Spanish GP 2013 - Race

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The rain came from the start of P1 frustrating most teams from testing their upgrades, but the picture emerging from Friday’s running is that the established order has not changed: Red Bull is numero uno with Ferrari and Lotus close behind. A lot of expectations coming McLaren’s revised car but reality is that they are still one second away from the front, and still behind Mercedes, Force India...and now Toro Rosso.

If Ferrari presented a F138 with a new front wing, sidepods and floor to try to catch Red Bull, the Champions from their part brought a heavily updated RB9. This development war is serious business. Mercedes is more concerned in solving their rear-tyre temperature problem; they will have their next round of aero-parts until the next GP in Monaco.

Today’s practice results:

P1 – ALO (1.25.252) MAS  VER  GRO  SUT  HAM  BOT  RAI  ROS  DIR

P2-   VET (1.22.808) ALO  WEB  RAI  MAS  HAM  ROS  SUT  VER  DIR

Ferrari and Lotus were the best cars in race simulation today, quick and consistent, getting 17-18 laps from the medium tyres – a good indication of what we can expect on the opening race stint. Mercedes was working on the same area, Rodberg showing a very good pace on the medium-options too doing up 18 laps without any significant tyre degradation. Red Bull as usual was hiding it’s cards, but it was clear that those short stints on new mediums when they placed 1st & 3rd were on low fuel and looking for the best QF set up.

There’s going to be a good fight for the pole, the top 6 on P2 are within 6 tenths of a second, the top three separated by 8 hundredths, with WEB looking particularly confident in this track where he always performs well.

Despite two DRS zones as of this year, Montmelo is a circuit where track position is key: 10 of the last 11 races have been won from the pole, and 18 of the last 22! The only driver ever to have won the race not starting from the front row was Schumacher in 1996 from P3. And in the rain. Webber has been on pole 2 of the last 3 for Red Bull.

Now let’s try to get the first valuable points of the weekend:

QF –Cato -  VET  WEB  ALO

You go

Cheers

Cato

 

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